ROOKIE’S WHAT IT
UP-AND-COMING trainer George Scott has his first Classic runner, James Garfield, in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas today.
Given he has been training for less than three years, it is no mean achievement to have a runner in such a prestigious race.
Then again, the colt is owned by his multi-millionaire father-in-law Bill Gredley, so that does give Scott an advantage others don’t have.
Young trainers have, as a rule of thumb, a five-year window in which to make their name. If they break slowly from the stalls it hinders their chances of getting all the way to the very top.
James Garfield is the best threeyear-old in Scott’s yard and a colt that could fast-track him to prominence. He is the best horse he has handled by some way, since his days assisting Lady Cecil when she had a trainer’s licence.
It had looked until this week as if James Garfield’s regular rider, Frankie Dettori, would be required to ride for John Gosden but an injury to his intended mount Without Parole meant the Italian is on James Garfield after all.
Reading between the lines, Dettori does not expect to win today’s Classic but he knows he will have a willing colt under him.
“He’s a lovely little horse,” said Dettori. “He loves a straight track. Apart from his nightmare run in the Breeders’ Cup, where he didn’t have much luck, he has done well with everything that has been put in front of him. He loves a scrap and wears his heart on his sleeve. I think he will run a nice race – a solid race like he usually does.
“I know he won’t let me down. I think his price (25-1) is about right; he comes into the fight being ultra-fit and will give it everything he’s got. He is entitled to be there and will give it a good shot.”
Scott used the Greenham at Newbury as James Garfield’s prep race. He won that well enough and caught the eye again on Tuesday when breezing six furlongs in front of the media on the Cambridge Road Polytrack gallop.
“It’s hugely exciting being a Newmarket trainer having a runner in a race like the 2,000 Guineas, especially as the Gredleys are a Newmarket family and bred the horse,” Scott said.
“To leg up Frankie, especially at the